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Located just 90 minutes west from Sydney, the World-Heritage-listed Blue Mountains has some of the country’s most breathtaking natural attractions.

The temperature during the Winter months is quite cool, averaging at around 50 C. During this time, groups tend to opt for indoor activities or if they do decide to venture outside, do so during the day whilst the sun is high in the sky. Summer days can be quite mild at around 180 C; however, we would still recommend rugging up at night. Outdoor activities work well during this time and regardless of the time of year – with the right attitude and the appropriate clothing (layers!) there’s no reason why groups wouldn’t love an explore around the local sights!

We’ve put a list together of our top team
building ideas for the Blue Mountains for your next conference offsite:

The Explorer is an Amazing Race / Treasure Hunt style of program based around the local area surrounding your conference venue. The event is an action-packed 2 – 4-hour adventure that takes in all the sites of the Blue Mountains (including the Three Sisters) where each team is driven around the area in a minibus undertaking team challenges. Speed is not always the deciding factor with a strong emphasis on route selection, problem-solving skills and team effectiveness at each of the activities.

Teams of delegates will aim to find various ‘roadblocks’ hidden around the local area. Each team has a mini bus and driver who follow clues to find the roadblock activity sites. Awaiting the groups at each station are team-based activities that range from Laser Clay Shooting & Archery to Wine & Chocolate Tasting.

Upon completing each station, teams are given the next clue to their next destination. This event usually starts at the conference venue and finishes either at an off-site dinner location or back at the conference venue.

Scenic World Challenge

The Scenic World Challenge is an event designed specifically for groups conferencing in the beautiful Blue Mountains. The event takes place within Scenic World – a popular tourist destination that is home to the famous: Skyway, Cableway + Railway rides.

Delegates will be divided into teams that compete to outscore their opponents at various challenges spread around Scenic World. Teams will aim to score points at 4 Roadblock Activity sites strategically positioned around Scenic World so that the teams must ride Skyway, Cableway + Railway to reach these destinations.

Delegates will be given a daily pass to use all Scenic World experiences: Skyway, Cableway, Railway and Walkway to transport the teams between the various challenges. The event will be tailored to suit your outcomes, time frame and the venue to ensure the Scenic World Challenge exceeds all expectations. We will work in conjunction with Scenic World to ensure the event is appropriate for the logistics of time and numbers moving through the “rides”.

The Mini Olympics is a fun activity that provokes competitiveness and plenty of laughter and doesn’t intimidate participants who may be lacking in sporting or physical prowess.

The event involves teams rotating around various sports such as Volleyball, Frisbee, Catapult Firing, T-Ball, Team Tennis, Dodge Ball, Kick Tennis, Sand Scrabble and many more. The options are endless and only dependent on the venue and the size of the group. Activities will be tailored to suit the location.

Each team participates in all of the activities and team scores are tallied to provide an overall winner. In a ceremony at the conclusion of the activity the winning team is presented with Olympic style gold medal medallions.

Experience
the thrill and excitement of shooting clay pigeons as they fly through the air.

This
dynamic and interactive activity uses authentic 12-gauge shotguns that have
been converted to fire laser beams. Clays with Omni-directional tape are fired
from the launcher – when the shooter scores a hit the beam is reflected back to
the gun and registers a hit on the electronic scoreboard.

This
activity is very popular and loads of fun for males and females of all ages,
fitness levels and ability.

Can
your team escape? This exciting Escape the Room challenge is the ultimate team
building event that will test the sharpest minds. Each team is “locked” in a
room with a set time frame in which to escape before the world as we know it
ceases to exist. Teams must follow the clues, solve the puzzles and unlock the
secrets to ESCAPE!

For
teams to be successful they must communicate, think outside the box, work
together, admit to their mistakes and believe they can succeed. All this under
extreme time pressure as each team has only 90 minutes to uncover the 8-digit
code that will ultimately allow them to escape the room.

This
event can be tailored to suit any size group by adding more rooms for more
teams. We recommend each team is between 8 – 12 people with each team requiring
1 room. Rooms can be conference rooms, hotel rooms, offices, boardrooms etc. Pinnacle
requires 30 minutes in each room prior to the event to set up.

Discover
the sommelier within! Pinnacle can provide you with your very own Hunter Valley
Winemaker who is willing to divulge the secret ingredients and methods required
to get the perfect wine from “Grape to Glass”. This unique and hands on
activity will have you smelling, swirling and spitting as teams learn to create
their very own winning blend. However, the taste alone won’t make you a
winner…how often have you bought a bottle of wine based on the sexy label?
Teams will also compete to create the greatest label that best reflects their fabulous
drop.

Design
and flavour are of paramount importance if you want to be the days “Grape to
Glass” winning team… But of course, the competition wouldn’t be complete
without the perfect sales pitch to your thirsty audience. A bottle of the
winning blend complete with winning label design will be distributed to every
member of the group to drink as they wish.

Give back to the community in this amazing working bee event. Delegates are given the task of turning a room full of boxed toys, dry goods and gifts into hampers for needy families. Pinnacle provides everything from the contents to the hampers to the wrapping and individualised cards to be written by your delegates to the family receiving that hamper. An overwhelming sense of pride and achievement will fill the room as the charity partner presents a thankyou speech on behalf of the families. Pinnacle will liaise with you to ensure that the event is tailored to your company. We can include your products and we can partner with your preferred charity group to ensure that the event has maximum impact. Often companies like to include the delegates beforehand by holding a charity drive within the workplace to include more toys and alike ….. the options are endless.

For a team to be successful, strong and effective communication is paramount. When employees understand the goals of the company and feel like their opinions matter, they are far more likely to reach their potential which means an increase in productivity.

Communication also refers to more than just
talking. It’s about connecting with people. How can you encourage effective
communication in your workplace?

Have an open-door policy. People need to feel comfortable with approaching management when they have a question or concern.

Encourage questions & curiosity. Employees need to feel safe and comfortable that they can ask questions without feeling any kind of embarrassment or criticism.

Avoid time wasting. No one enjoys attending the weekly work meeting going over a topic that does not relate to their role. Ensure that meetings and one-on-one catchups are utilised efficiently.

Teams with the best communication will thrive in this challenge! The Amazing Race is an action-packed adventure where teams navigate their way around the conference resort or local area undertaking team-based challenges.

Once teams have collectively decided on their route selection they will make their way to the activity sites, where they will be further challenged in a series of lateral thinking, problem solving tasks including:

Number Triangle – Nine numbered
tiles are laid out in a triangle shape. The team moves the tiles so that the
addition of the numbers is equal on each side

Pyramids – Teams are
racing to rebuild a pyramid that can only be structured from bottom to top.

Shape Shifter – Using memory
and instinct teams must recreate a series of original shapes

Skyscraper – Teams must work
together to build a lofty skyscraper using all seven building blocks without
the structure toppling over.

Eddy the Egg – Teams construct
a space capsule device out of straws and tape to catch a raw egg dropped from 2
metres.

A great activity for seeing how your team communicates under pressure! This fun and competitive team event is based on the hit TV show Survivor. To begin, delegates will be separated into their teams known as tribes. Then the competition begins! The tribes will compete against each other at a series of “Survivor Style” team challenges. These challenges focus more on lateral thinking/problem solving/teamwork than strength.

Points are awarded for the winning tribe at each challenge with the tribe with the highest score at the conclusion of the event heading to tribal council in the best position. Unlike the TV Show, tribes will not vote members out of their team, instead, teams will vote to determine the overall winner! This is a fun and engaging team event that ensures collaboration, communication, problem solving and teamwork. Example challenges include:

Cubes – Can your team
solve this 3D Rubix Cube?

Wonder Word – Using 9 letters
teams must make as many words as possible with bonus points of the 9 letter
word.

Nailed It – It appears
impossible however if you think outside the square you can balance 12 nails on
just one nail head.

Zoom – Teams must
arrange the order of the famous picture story Zoom.

Bamboo Towers – Teams build a
free standing tower using bamboo sticks and display their team number at the
top. The winners are the team with the highest tower

Water Pipeline – A challenge whereby teams are issued with equipment to construct a pipeline that must transport 2 litres of water from A to B. The team that successfully manages to transport the most water in the time frame will win!

Are you looking for an event that will get your WHOLE TEAM WORKING AS ONE? Project Pipeline is a team challenge that requires participants to consider their own goals, the goals of their work team and the goals of the entire company.

This is a challenging construction task that divides the company into working teams. Each team will be assigned a country and the task of building a pipeline to deliver a precious resource from one side to the other. On top of managing time, resources and personnel to build their Country’s, pipeline teams will also need to negotiate and innovate to connect their pipeline to their neighbouring Country’s creating one continuous pipeline. Teams will need to work against time and conflicting objectives to achieve the whole company goal.

Delegates will have great fun, planning, negotiating, inventing and competing against the other Country’s to create their Pipeline. By the completion of the project, the whole group will have built a long and winding pipeline that is put to the test when the precious resources are sent down the line.

Can
your team escape? This exciting Escape the Room challenge is the ultimate team
building event that will test the sharpest minds. Each team is “locked” in a
room with a set time frame in which to escape before the world as we know it
ceases to exist. Teams must follow the clues, solve the puzzles and unlock the
secrets to ESCAPE!

For
teams to be successful they must communicate, think outside the box, work
together, admit to their mistakes and believe they can succeed. All this under
extreme time pressure as each team has only 90 minutes to uncover the 8-digit
code that will ultimately allow them to escape the room.

This
event can be tailored to suit any size group by adding more rooms for more
teams. We recommend each team is between 8 – 12 people with each team requiring
1 room. Rooms can be conference rooms, hotel rooms, offices, boardrooms etc. Pinnacle
requires 30 minutes in each room prior to the event to set up.

An
exciting collaborative construction project with teams working in unison to
design and construct an impressive bridge. Each team builds the bridge to their
customer expectations while overcoming limited resources, communication
barriers and strict timelines. The exciting final sees each team’s individual
bridge being installed to create the huge, extended Company Bridge. The final
construction is tested with a remote controlled car. A fun, engaging, hands on
event with very powerful metaphors – where all departments of an organisation
strive towards their own goals, but also play a vital role in the bigger
picture.

Option One: 60 – 90 minutes

Teams
are given equal equipment to build their section of the bridge and complete the
finale activity joining all sections of the bridge. The remote controlled cars
are driven by the delegates around the bridge to test the overall success of
the task.

Option Two: 2 – 3 hours

Teams
must earn the pieces of their bridge by successfully completing a series of
team based tasks.

Good communication starts with LISTENING. And along with making quite a lot of noise, corporate drumming will get your team doing just that. This whole activity is facilitated without our host actually speaking a word, it is all done via gestures and non-verbal communication.

Delegates will enter the conference room and will be greeted by the sounds of drumming from our team. They are invited to take a seat, pick up a drum (or another instrument) and join in. Our host facilitator will orchestrate the individual contributions of your group into one unified rhythm, through the use of layering and sound dynamics. Demonstrating although different teams may be working within their own separate groups, they can still be cohesively working together towards a larger, common goal.

The average person will spend just under 80 years on this
earth. From those years, 26 of them will be spent sleeping and just over 13 of
them will be spent working. Given the time and dedication we give to work each
year, is it unreasonable to expect the majority of this time to be a positive,
happy experience?

“It’s what you do, how you are able to go about your work
and who is alongside you that matters the most when it comes to job
satisfaction.”

The authors of the report recommend that both employers and
employees should dedicate resources into creating ways to make work a better
place for everyone. To make sure everyone fits and that above all else, put
people and their wellbeing first.

What are the benefits of happy workers?

It is well known that happy employees equal engaged
employees. And engaged employees have a significant positive affect on your organisation’s
bottom line. Employees that feel greater satisfaction and happiness at work tend
to be more productive and have lower levels of sick leave and staff turnover.

In the words of Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group
renowned for his “employees first” mantra:

“By putting the employee first, the customer effectively
comes first by default, and in the end, the shareholder comes first by default
as well.”

Likewise, Harvey Norman’s Gerry Harvey and Katie Page dedicate
a lot of their time to mentoring staff as, “happy workers mean happy customer. People
spend so much time at work … it’s crazy if they aren’t feeling happy.”

Put simply, happy people are better workers.

A meaningful vision of the future: People want to be able to see the future and know how they fit in.

A sense of purpose: People want to feel as if their work matters, and that their contributions help to achieve something really important. They want to know that they — and their organizations — are doing something big that matters to other people.

Great relationships: Leaders, managers, and employees have all told us that close, trusting and supportive relationships are hugely important to their state of mind — and their willingness contribute to a team.

So how might you encourage your team members to have great relationships with one another? Most the time this doesn’t just happen naturally, which means employers need to create opportunities for their team to interact, bond and get to know each other better. By engaging Pinnacle Team Events we can facilitate this for you and tailor a team building program to suit the specific needs and characteristics of your team. Contact us to find out more.

The Hunter Valley is one of Australia’s oldest & best-known wine regions with over 120 wineries, award-winning restaurants and an abundance of distinguished hotels & resorts. Located only 2 hours from Sydney and 45 mins from Newcastle airport, the Hunter Valley is the ideal location for your next conference getaway.

A trip to the Hunter Valley will naturally conjure the desire to
immerse yourself in a little tasting of the local delicacies (including wine,
cheese & chocolate) as well as simply wanting to be outside in the
beautiful lush, green surroundings. It is sacrilegious to go to the Hunter Valley
for your conference offsite & spend the whole time indoors going through PowerPoint
presentations. That is why Pinnacle Team Events have designed a series of bespoke,
Hunter Valley themed team building experiences that can be easily incorporated
into your conference agenda AND can be justified to management for their team
building benefits. See below for our list of the top team building ideas for
the Hunter Valley:

Stole it
from the Grape Vine – Once teams have built their own grape vine
the competition begins! Players steal bunches of grapes from another teams
grape vine and attach to their own. The team with the most bunches of grapes at
the end wins!

Discover the sommelier within! Pinnacle can provide you with your
very own Hunter Valley Winemaker who is willing to divulge the secret
ingredients and methods required to get the perfect wine from “Grape to Glass”.
This unique and hands on activity will have you smelling, swirling and spitting
as teams learn to create their very own winning blend. However, the taste alone
won’t make you a winner…how often have you bought a bottle of wine based on the
sexy label? Teams will also compete to create the greatest label that best
reflects their fabulous drop.

Design and flavour are of paramount importance if you want to be
the days “Grape to Glass” winning team… But of course, the competition wouldn’t
be complete without the perfect sales pitch to your thirsty audience. A bottle
of the winning blend complete with winning label design will be distributed to
every member of the group to drink as they wish.

For the group wanting to get a taste of all the Hunter Valley has
to offer whilst achieving some team bonding at the same time.

The Hunter Valley Explorer is an Amazing Race / Treasure Hunt
style of program based around the Pokolbin area. The event is an action packed
3 – 4 hour adventure where each team is driven around the area in a mini bus
undertaking team challenges – speed is not always the deciding factor with a
strong emphasis on route selection, problem solving skills and team effectiveness
at each of the activities.

Teams of delegates will aim to find various ‘road blocks’ hidden
around the Pokolbin area. Each team has a mini bus and driver who follow clues
to find the road block activity sites. Awaiting the groups at each station are
team based activities that range from Laser Clay Shooting to landing the Aqua
Golf to Archery to Cheese Tasting Quiz to Blind Wine Tasting. Upon completing
each station, teams receive a clue to their next destination.

Wanting to treat your team after a hard day conferencing &
only have a short amount of time between your conference & dinner? Check
out our Wine Events below:

Wine Tasting:

Treat your team to a wine tasting to cap off a hard days conferencing. Hosted by Tulloch Wines from the Hunter Valley the Wine Tasting session allows your team to relax, unwind, connect with each other and learn a little about some of the region’s best wine. We can either host the wine tasting onsite at your conference venue or offsite at Tulloch Wines.

Location: Indoors or outdoorsDuration: 45 – 60 mins

Wine & Chocolate Tasting:

Experience
the decadence of Australian made chocolate as you partner each one with the
mouth-watering flavours of Tulloch Wines. This guided tasting session will take
your taste buds on an amazing journey as you discover how pairing wine with
chocolate can enhance two of life’s great indulgences. This sit down event will
see participants experience 5 different wines that have been specifically
paired with 5 delicious chocolates. Participants will take home knowledge of
the rules of pairing so they can complement their favourite wines at home with
the most appropriate chocolate.

Location: Indoors set with tables & chairsDuration: 1 hour

Wine Options Game:

The Wine Options Game is a fun, entertaining and competitive way to share a wine with the team. This event is hosted by Tulloch Wines during pre-dinner drinks inside your private dining room. The “game” sees each delegate receive a “mystery” glass of wine. The host from Tulloch will ask questions, general at first, about the wine in everyone’s glass.

• ‘Is this wine from the northern or
southern hemisphere’?

• ‘Does this wine taste oaked or
unoaked’?

• ‘Is the alcohol content in this wine low or high’?

Those giving the wrong answer in each round must sit down and are eliminated from the game until the year and grape variety has been correctly discovered. The winner will receive a bottle of that wine and the game moves onto the next wine. There are 3 wines in total with each game taking approximately 10 minutes so allow 30 minutes overall.

This ancient form of medieval weaponry is a great event to get
your team on target! In this engaging activity a structured lesson involving
technique and safety are outlined and enforced. The delegates are then divided
into teams that compete aiming to outscore their opponents. All delegates will
have plenty of firing time and be kept entertained as teams are involved in
various competitions and games that all involve shooting arrows at the target.
The event can finish with a sharpest individual shooter if you like.

As this event involves delegates firing real arrows the space
available to host this activity must allow for a large firing range. We are
permitted to hold the event on private land such as conference venues however
most councils do not allow this event on public land.

The majority of Hunter Valley hotels & resorts have an
abundance of space perfect for our Amazing Race program!

The Amazing Race On Site is an action-packed adventure where teams navigate their way around the conference resort undertaking team-based challenges. Speed is not always the deciding factor with an emphasis on teamwork, planning, problem-solving and of course having fun.

Teams will be issued with a map of the resort and cryptic clues to various locations hidden around the grounds. Awaiting the groups at each location are team-based activities known as “roadblocks” that will be tailored to suit your outcomes and the venue. All teams converge at the finale location at the same time for a final all-in team challenge before prizes are awarded to the victors! Some example challenges include:

Number Triangle – Nine numbered tiles are laid out in a triangle shape. The team moves the tiles so that the addition of the numbers is equal on each side.

Team building is one of the most important investments you can make for your team, and yet when we’re busy or if budget is an issue it is often the item that gets pushed to the bottom of the priority list.

“[Team Building] builds trust, mitigates conflict, encourages communication, and increases collaboration. Effective team building means more engaged employees, which is good for company culture and boosting the bottom line,” founder and CEO of O2E Brands, Brian Scudamore.

With one month of 2019 already down, it can take us all by surprise how quickly time flies! Particularly at this time of year, taking the team out of the office for a day may be completely unfathomable, the cost of the activity itself along with the missed work time may seem like a lavish expense. In reality, employees who don’t work well together or who aren’t engaged could end up costing you just as much, if not more business.

We’ve put a list together of our top activities to get your
team excited and energised for the year ahead.

Ignite the mood & energy of your team with an
interactive performance using drums, musical tubes and percussion instruments. Your
group will feel entirely exhilarated after creating a musical masterpiece under
the guidance of our Professional Drummer, who doesn’t speak throughout the
entire tuition! The session begins with members of your team playing their own
individual contributions. Our facilitator then moulds these into one piece of
unified music. The drumming session will leave your team laughing and unified,
ready for the year ahead.

If you haven’t heard of an Escape Room please crawl out from the rock you’ve been hiding under! Escape Rooms are currently all the rage and we know why; they are great for team building! Essentially, players are “locked” inside a room and given the task of solving a series of clues within a set time frame to escape. There are many reasons that Escape rooms make great team building activities, with the top being:

Your team members set a common goal & work together to achieve it – just like you’d like them to do in the office!

Everyone is engaged & onboard – problem solving under
the pressure of a time limit forces teams to tackle problems swiftly and efficiently.
Team members also have to delegate various tasks & have trust in their team
members.

Escape rooms can help teams to better understand individual
strengths and weaknesses revealing communication, thinking styles and team dynamics.

We all know the old saying ‘there is no I in team’, and when
individual employees work toward their own objectives it can become impossible for
the team to be productive. On the other hand, working toward common goals is
one of the defining characteristics of a successful team. If you would like to
kick off the new year by bringing your team together & get them collaborating
& working together towards a common goal our Bridge to Unity program is
ideal.

Bridge to Unity is an exciting collaborative construction
project with teams working in unison to design and construct an impressive
bridge. Each team builds the bridge to their customer expectations while
overcoming limited resources, communication barriers and strict timelines. The
exciting final sees each team’s individual bridge being installed to create the
huge, extended Company Bridge. The final construction is tested with a remote
controlled car. A fun, engaging, hands on event with very powerful metaphors –
where all departments of an organisation strive towards their own goals, but
also play a vital role in the bigger picture.

Giving Back Events

You may or may not have heard the term Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) before. CSR is a term that refers to the responsibility of an
organisation for the impacts of its decisions and activities on society and the
environment, through transparent and ethical behaviour. As we’ve already
mentioned, team building activities help to unify and motivate your team. CSR
team building activities do all that our usual team building programs can do
with the added bonus of making a positive difference in the lives of people who
need it most. Unite your team, boost morale and strengthen bonds by
giving back to those less fortunate with your team.

The Pitch is an exciting innovation challenge that
replicates the famous TV show Shark Tank & requires lots of teamwork,
creativity, forward-thinking and great presentation skills. The challenge will
see teams creating a product or service they will pitch to a judge (Shark). The
aim of the teams is to convince the judge that their business is a sound
investment and for the judge to buy to their start up business. This event
allows team full creative licence to develop their business idea and present it
in any way they choose. The judge(s) will have $1 million to distribute amongst
the teams….. the team that receives the most money wins.

Finding the right team building activities for smaller groups can sometimes be a challenge, especially if you’re working to a set budget. If you’re part of a team of only 7-12 people and looking for a team activity, we’ve put together a list of our top team building activities for smaller groups!

In a Pinnacle blog post from July earlier this year, we discussed the notion of the ‘ideal team size’. When dividing a large group into smaller teams we usually try and keep these team sizes around the 7-person mark, however anywhere between 6 – 10 is great! By keeping team sizes within this range, we find this provides the best environment for all members of the team to contribute and have their creativity, ideas, energy & experience flourish. But what if your total group size is only 7 – 12 people? What team building activities for smaller groups work best?

The perfect activity for smaller groups that won’t break the bank. We have created our very own mobile Escape the room challenge that can be brought to your conference venue or office. For a small group of up to 12 people we would keep everyone on the same team & “lock” them in a room with a set time frame in which to escape before the world as we know it ceases to exist. Teams must follow the clues, solve the puzzles and unlock the secrets to ESCAPE!

For teams to be successful they must communicate, think outside the box, work together, admit to their mistakes and believe they can succeed. All this under extreme time pressure as each team has only 90 minutes to uncover the 8-digit code that will ultimately allow them to escape the room.

This event can be tailored to suit any size group by adding more rooms for more teams. We recommend each team is between 7 – 12 people with each team requiring 1 room. Rooms can be conference rooms, hotel rooms, offices, boardrooms etc. Pinnacle requires 30 minutes in each room prior to the event to set up.

As the majority of challenges in our Survivor are based more on lateral thinking, problem solving challenges than team sports, this activity is well suited to smaller groups! This activity sees teams competing head to head at a series of “Survivor style” lateral thinking tasks that require the whole team to cooperate, communicate and think outside the square as they aim to outscore their opponents.

A modified version of our Amazing Race activity suited to smaller groups that might be tight on time or budget. The Scramble sees teams race around the local area taking team photos, collecting scavenger items, solving IQ Tests and passing through a roadblock challenge activity site.

Teams will be issued a map of the local area showing their start, finish and roadblock location and a list of photos to take and scavenger items to collect. Teams aim to outscore their opponents with each scavenger item, team photo and correct IQ answer adding to their score. When teams arrive at the final location they submit their items, photos and answers to the Pinnacle team for marking.

This ancient form of medieval weaponry is a great event to get your team on target! In this engaging activity a structured lesson involving technique and safety are outlined and enforced. The delegates are then divided into teams that compete aiming to outscore their opponents. All delegates will have plenty of firing time and be kept entertained as teams are involved in various competitions and games that all involve shooting arrows at the target. The event can finish with a sharpest individual shooter if you like.

As this event involves delegates firing real arrows the space available to host this activity must allow for a large firing range. We are permitted to hold the event on private land such as conference venues however most councils do not allow this event on public land.

Experience the thrill and excitement of shooting clay pigeons as they fly through the air.

This dynamic and interactive activity uses authentic 12-gauge shotguns that have been converted to fire laser beams. Clays with Omni-directional tape are fired from the launcher – when the shooter scores a hit the beam is reflected back to the gun and registers a hit on the electronic scoreboard.

This activity is very popular and loads of fun for males and females of all ages, fitness levels and ability.

Even strong teams can benefit from team building exercises; they help to promote better teamwork and communication as well as boosting morale & productivity. Even with a full agenda all it takes is a 15-20 minute icebreaker activity to get your team motivated and ready for the day ahead. Are you planning a group event or meeting and want to get your participants off to a good start? Avoid the awkward silence and add an element of fun with one or more of these icebreaker activities for groups!

Human Bingo: 20 – 30 minutes

Just like the game you played with Grandma, but instead of numbers you need to find someone in the room who fits the description on your Bingo card.

Human Bingo is the perfect event to facilitate a large group of people breaking the ice and meeting one another. The event is set loosely on the game BINGO whereby each participant receives a piece of paper and a pen. Upon the paper is a table with 45 boxes – each box contains a descriptive statement that may match one, two or many people in the room. The goal of the participants is to roam the room and introduce themselves around to meet as many people as possible; each meeting the participants will assist the other with putting their name into one of the boxes. Each box may only be used once by each person. Each person can only appear once on a participants BINGO sheet ensuring delegates meet at least 45 people in the 30-minute time frame.

Once you complete all 45 boxes you yell BINGO at the top of your lungs and the game finishes with that winner on stage and the MC introducing some of the 45 people they met and the statements for each of them.

This is a fun and engaging way to get to know each other with fun and excitement rather than many of the ‘get to know you’ alternatives that can be awkward and lame. The Human Bingo will set the precedent at the beginning of the conference that meeting each other and communicating with suppliers, members and institute staff is encouraged throughout the conference.

Balloon Modelling: 15 minutes

This one’s for the Clown enthusiasts! Teams must make the best balloon model that represents their team and come up with a sales pitch to present to the judges….in front of the entire group of course.

Foil Towers

Teams race against the clock to build the tallest tower using only foil. This is a much tougher task than it sounds!

Focusing on teamwork, communication and leadership, teams must construct a basket that will catch an egg dropped from a height of 2m.

The challenge is to construct a mechanism that can catch and support a raw egg after it is dropped from a height of approximately 2 metres. In small groups, delegates use straws, sticky tape and ingenuity to create a capsule to keep Eddy safe.

A very simple, exciting and fun break activity that is guaranteed to liven the troops for the next session.

Visualise yourself amidst a sea of colour and rhythm! Delegates enter the conference room to be met by the sounds of drumming from the Human Rhythms team. As the surprised delegates take their seats they discover a musical tube in front of them and start to play.

Our vibrant, colourful musical tubes are the perfect instrument when only a short setup time is available. Imagine your delegates returning to find the conference room has been transformed into a sea of instrumental colour. This option is also great in a dinner setting or when time, budget or space is an issue.

Do you have a competitive team who thrives on a challenge? Look no further, this event is for you!

This is a construction based event whereby each team is allocated a set of resources to build a Formula 1 race car. The car is designed around its power source – a rocket!

The rocket is a specially designed piece of equipment that will create a blast of power generated by a high pressure cycling foot pump. The result is a car that shoots out of the starting gates and hopefully beats your opponents by travelling the greatest distance along the conference room floor.

This is a great session where teams of approximately five people will design and build their very own car. All cars race with the winners of each round entering the finals and then finishing with the grand finale.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year and it is fast approaching! Have you been given the mammoth task of organising your end of year work celebrations? Are you stuck for ideas and yet to lock anything in? Now is the time to start planning and securing your preferred Christmas party date as we are already starting to book out on some dates in December! To get you into the Christmas Spirit and to help with your planning, we have put together a list of our top 10 team building ideas for your work Christmas party.

Bring on that end of year feeling with a good old-fashioned scavenger hunt! Just like an end of year muck up day without the chance of being arrested, our Amazing Race is the perfect way to see out the work year.

The gift of giving! Christmas is a time for giving and also a time to remember others who may not be as fortunate as ourselves. So why not make a difference and get your team together to build & donate some bikes to underprivileged kids.

Wanting to really spoil your team for the end of year function? Spend the day checking out all the sites on Sydney Harbour whilst solving clues & competing in challenges in our Water Taxi Treasure Hunt.

We have collated all the data for the 2017/2018 financial year and the results for the most popular team activities are in!

Most popular team activity overall/Most popular outdoor activity

The Amazing Race

The Amazing Race TV show first graced our TV screens back in 2001 and our team building version is still just as popular as ever! The Amazing Race is great for groups of all sizes and physical abilities. Unlike the show, the winner of the Amazing Race is not the first team to reach the finish line. Instead, teams make their way to various road block activity sites where they compete in points-based challenges. The team with the most points at the end is the winner! The activity hones in on a teams’ ability to communicate, problem solve and work together.

Most popular outdoor team activities

Amazing Race

Survivor

Mini Olympics

Carnivale

Wine Olympics

Most Popular indoor team activity

A team building activity & wine tasting all rolled into one? Yes please! It is no surprise that our Grape to Glass was the most popular team activity for indoor events. In this activity your group will be split into teams of approximately 8 people. On each table will be either three bottles of Red (Tempranillo, Cabernet & Shiraz) OR 3 bottles of White (Chardonnay, Semillon & Verdelho). Lead by your very own Hunter Valley winemaker, your group will be taken through a brief wine tasting & lesson on what goes into making a delicious blend of wine. Teams will then be given the task of not only blending the 3 wines in front of them to create the most ideal balance, but also designing their very own unique wine label and putting together a sales pitch which they will present in front of the group. The more original and entertaining the better! A bottle of the winning blend complete with winning label design will be distributed to every member of the group to drink as they wish post-event. A great team activity for groups wanting to show off their sales skills or creative side!

Most popular indoor team activities

Grape to Glass

Corporate Drumming

Tikes on Bikes

Escape

Bridge to Unity

Most popular night team activity

Not the average pub trivia you’re probably used to! In between each round of questions (which can include general knowledge, themed questions or music trivia) each team volunteers a member to participate in crazy challenge activities which makes the evening super fun & very interactive. Example challenges include:

Bottle Flick – flick a ping-pong ball off the top of the bottle. Sounds easy, however most struggle…

Putt Putt – delegates put their golfing skills to the test with a little twist. Sink the putt and score the points!

Balloon Burst – Blow up a balloon, tie a knot in the end and burst the balloon between the knees.

Balloon Mascots – Teams are given modelling balloons and asked to design a mascot that best reflects their team. Points are given based on imagination and reasoning

Eddy the Egg – Teams construct a space capsule device out of straws and tape to catch a raw egg dropped from 2 metres

Foil Towers – Teams race against the clock to build the tallest tower using only foil

In the initial stages of planning an event you should always determine all the major details such as number of participants, date/time, location and of course, budget. And just because you don’t have a huge budget doesn’t mean you can’t host an affordable team building event.

The many benefits of regular team building range from increased productivity and better communication to more team support and less conflicts within the workplace. According to CEO of O2E brands, Brian Scudamore, “…team building is the most important investment you can make for your people. It builds trust, mitigates conflict, encourages communication, and increases collaboration. Effective team building means more engaged employees, which is good for company culture and boosting the bottom line.” (Read more here)

But for a lot of businesses, we understand that budget can be an issue and it can be hard to make team building a priority without breaking the bank. First of all, there are plenty of affordable team building programs out there and second, instead of viewing team building as something that is only splurged on, companies should be looking at team building as an investment for the future. Friday night drinks or a team afternoon at lawn bowls are examples of more affordable team building options and great fun however tend to miss the mark in getting teams cohesively working together.

We’ve put together a list of our top 10 affordable team building ideas for those groups who have to be a little more budget conscious.

The Scramble is a modified version of our Amazing Race event for those groups tight on time and or budget. This exciting outdoor event will see teams race around the local area taking team photos, collecting scavenger items, solving IQ Tests and passing through a roadblock challenge activity site.

Teams will be issued a map of the local area showing their start, finish and roadblock location and a list of photos to take and scavenger items to collect. Teams aim to outscore their opponents with each scavenger item, team photo and correct IQ answer adding to their score. When teams arrive at the final location they submit their items, photos and answers to the Pinnacle team for marking.

Experience the thrill and excitement of shooting clay pigeons as they fly through the air.

This dynamic and interactive activity uses authentic 12-gauge shotguns that have been converted to fire laser beams. Clays with Omni-directional tape are fired from the launcher – when the shooter scores a hit the beam is reflected back to the gun and registers a hit on the electronic scoreboard.

This activity is very popular and loads of fun for males and females of all ages, fitness levels and ability.

Location: Outdoor space approx. size of a tennis court – must be a privately-owned space (not a council park or reserve)

This ancient form of medieval weaponry is a great event to get your team on target! In this engaging activity a structured lesson involving technique and safety are outlined and enforced. The delegates are then divided into teams that compete aiming to outscore their opponents. All delegates will have plenty of firing time and be kept entertained as teams are involved in various competitions and games that all involve shooting arrows at the target. The event can finish with a sharpest individual shooter if you like.

As this event involves delegates firing real arrows the space available to host this activity must allow for a large firing range. We are permitted to hold the event on private land such as conference venues however most councils do not allow this event on public land.

Location: Outdoor space approx. size of 2 x tennis courts – must be a privately-owned space (not a council park or reserve)

Designed to suit any conference, function or meeting room. Teams are each seated at their own table and issued with the Battle of the Minds booklet containing 45 challenges in total. The booklet contains 15 easy, 15 medium and 15 hard challenges with each challenge on a separate page. As members complete the challenge they submit for marking and continue with their next task.

The challenges vary to accommodate all brain types; mathematical, artistic, creative, scientific and engineering. Delegates choose the challenges they want to undertake aiming to score more points than the competing teams. The room turns to chaos with delegates constantly moving around the room completing challenges and submitting answers.

Can your team escape? This exciting Escape the Room challenge is the ultimate team building event that will test the sharpest minds. Each team is “locked” in a room with a set time frame in which to escape before the world as we know it ceases to exist. Teams must follow the clues, solve the puzzles and unlock the secrets to ESCAPE!

For teams to be successful they must communicate, think outside the box, work together, admit to their mistakes and believe they can succeed. All this under extreme time pressure as each team has only 90 minutes to uncover the 8-digit code that will ultimately allow them to escape the room.

This event can be tailored to suit any size group by adding more rooms for more teams. We recommend each team is between 8 – 12 people with each team requiring 1 room. Rooms can be conference rooms, hotel rooms, offices, boardrooms etc. Pinnacle requires 30 minutes in each room prior to the event to set up.

This is a challenging and entertaining activity that will bring out the best in your team. Each team will be assigned a country and the task of building a pipeline to deliver a precious resource from one side to the other. On top of managing time, resources and personnel to build their Country’s, pipeline teams will also need to negotiate and innovate to connect their pipeline to all the other Country’s creating one continuous pipeline. Teams will need to work against time and conflicting objectives to achieve the whole group goal.

Delegates will have great fun, planning, negotiating, inventing and competing against the other Country’s to create their Pipeline. By the completion of the project the whole group will have built a long and winding pipeline that is put to the test when the precious resources are sent down the line.

An indoor team building event where teams compete to earn points at a series of lateral thinking challenges.

All of the tasks in the team challenge require the entire team to plan, problem solve, communicate, think outside the square and then ultimately work together. Teams are either racing to be the first to complete or must solve the task within a designated times end.

Example challenges include:

Balloon Mascots – Teams are given modelling balloons and asked to design a mascot that best reflects their team. Points are given based on imagination and reasoning

Eddy the Egg – Teams construct a space capsule device out of straws and tape to catch a raw egg dropped from 2 metres

Foil Towers – Teams race against the clock to build the tallest tower using only foil

Nailed It – It appears impossible however if you think outside the square you can balance 12 nails on just one nail head.

Delegates enter the conference room and are greeted by the powerful sound of African drumming. Each person is invited to take a seat, pick up a musical tube and join in. At this point our facilitator orchestrates the individual contributions into one unified rhythm, through the use of layering and sound dynamics. Periodically, the group is led through warm-up stretches and light-hearted moves designed to amuse, loosen and relax. The team continues their conference, laughing, united and enthused, ready for what lies ahead, having bonded from the experience.

Musical Tubes – 20 Minutes
Visualise yourself amidst a sea of colour and rhythm! Our vibrant, colourful musical tubes are the perfect instrument when only a short setup time is available.

Experience the decadence of Australian made chocolate as you partner each one with the mouth-watering flavours of Tulloch Wines. This guided tasting session will take your taste buds on an amazing journey as you discover how pairing wine with chocolate can enhance two of life’s great indulgences.

This sit-down event will see participants experience 5 different wines that have been specifically paired with 5 delicious chocolates. Participants will take home knowledge of the rules of pairing so they can complement their favourite wines at home with the most appropriate chocolate.

This isn’t your average pub trivia. Pinnacle is ingenious at tailoring this interactive trivia challenge to any group. It will prove to be unlike any other trivia night you have ever attended. The games we play throughout the night are hysterical and we can guarantee that your delegates will be laughing from start to finish.

Between each round of questions the tables volunteer delegates to participate in crazy challenge activities (which makes the evening very interactive). Music trivia, movie, and TV sound tracks are on the menu as well as IQ/Brainteasers.

We will fit in with the agenda of the evening and usually fill the space between the entree and the main, the main and the dessert. At the completion of the event the results are tallied up and prizes are presented to the winning team.